Safety Harbor residents cluck over allowing chickens in town
By 
During a recent goal setting session, newly elected Safety Harbor Mayor Joe Ayoub promised to utilize an expeditious approach throughout his tenure when addressing issues affecting the city.
But during his first full meeting as mayor, that plan flew the coop, so to speak.
The first reading of a proposed ordinance that would allow up to (4) female chickens to be kept on detached single-family residential properties in Safety Harbor had the atmosphere of a three-ring circus, as chickens-as-pets supporters and opponents shouted facts and opinions from their seats and, at one point, filed to the podium two-by-two in order to present their arguments.
“I’m the one that brought this all up at the beginning,” resident David Kern said, acknowledging it was at his insistence that the city reexamine the idea of allowing chickens in town, a proposal that had previously been shot down by the commission in 2011.
Kern then launched into a point-by-point takedown of the arguments that were made against allowing chickens, which included noise, odor and the attracting of bugs, varmints and other pests.
“I built a cage that was impossible for anything to attack, so there was no problem at all,” he said, a fact he later conceded was not an option for everybody.
“Rats? I have no rats,” he continued. “One got in my chicken’s cage and my chickens killed it. Roaches? They eat the roaches. I don’t understand why they were saying they attract roaches because the chickens love that idea because…they’re gonna eat ‘em right up.”
But for every pro-chicken argument, led by the main reason people want them—for their eggs, which are better for you than store-bought eggs, and a lot cheaper, too—there was a valuable counterpoint.
Recent Safety Harbor transplants Debbie Adams and Todd Wages admitted they’re at their wit’s end over their new neighbors’ unlawful possession of chickens.
“I’m a recent transplant from Wisconsin, and I’ve seen the impact chickens have on domestic neighborhoods,” Wages, who, along with Adams, lives on Bayview Drive in the northeast corner of the city, said.
“The coons alone, when they attack small domesticated animals, are not a good thing.”
He went on to say that “in the last ten days alone, I have seen an increase in the amount of raccoons and possums climbing along the top of the fence trying to get to the neighbor’s chickens…and we do not need to have any more coons or possums tracking down our small animals.”
“Why would you want something that eats (pets)?” Debbie Adams added.
The five commissioners began discussing the subject, but the discourse quickly devolved into a fight for and against the right to own chickens, with Kern and Adams briefly occupying the podium to argue their points and others shouting theirs from their seats before Mayor Ayoub was forced to close the public comments, denying both sides additional speaking time.
After the hubbub died down, the commission finally got around to voting on the item.
Only, they didn’t vote.
When it became apparent the number of votes against the ordinance would outweigh those in favor, thus killing the proposal before the public could weigh-in during a second reading, they elected to postpone voting until staff gathered more information, which could include conducting a poll via the city’s website.
“I’m hearing we need to gather more information, unless we want to take a vote tonight,” Ayoub said.
Vice-Mayor Carlos Diaz and Commissioners Cliff Merz and Andy Zodrow also said they’d like more information, with Diaz suggesting they contact neighboring communities that allow chickens, like Dunedin, to see if they’ve had any major complaints.
“I want additional info,” Diaz said, adding they might want to consider including cage requirements with any future proposal.
Perhaps lost during all the partisan poultry politicking was the fact that since Safety Harbor is primarily comprised of deed-restricted communities, there’s a very small percentage of neighborhoods where chicken ownership would even be permissible, with the understanding that most HOAs would frown upon such a fowl request.
“During my campaign, I heard that seventy-five to eighty percent of our neighborhoods are deed restricted,” recently elected Commissioner Scott Long, who voted in favor of the previous ordinance as a member of the Planning and Zoning Board in 2011, mentioned early in the 45-minute discussion.
“So I think it’s a very small amount of people that can even entertain having chickens.”
Long’s point was supported by audience member, and admitted animal lover, Susan Zinkel.
“I really don’t think we should be allowing this,” Zinkel said, noting local pet owners already have a problem with coyotes roaming the town.
“I think we need to focus on things that a majority of our residents want…instead of focusing a lot of time on small things like chickens.”
Harborites, what do you think? Should the commission allow chickens in town? Let us know in the comments below.
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I love chickens, ducks, and peafowl with their nostalgic cries. Their poop makes excellent fertilizer for the Florida native salvias, hamila, Spanish needle, and passion vine that bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds love to feast on! What happened to humanity? The people in this state with the access to the loveliness of year round nature have become petty, bitter, and narrow minded. As for the sichophant with the half baked apology to the cancer survivor, save it. You have no idea what it is like to be a survivor, and the crap you think is organic in the store? well deary, that is fake news!
Chickens bring good neighbors together!
I think if you are willing to go through the trouble of building a coop and getting it inspected so you can get a permit, you should be allowed to be a chicken owner. Many people want to know where their food comes from, and want to eat healthy. They grow food in their gardens for that reason. If I turn my entire back yard into a a garden, that is not my neighbor’s business.
Most protein sources are too large for a yard. Chickens are relatively small, and I think it is not unreasonable to allow a few hens if the yard will accommodate a coop. When they are done laying, they can be eaten by the owner or someone who needs food. Yes, that plastic wrapped thing in the grocery store is a killed chicken, whose life was taken for you, the consumer.
I have had fruit rats, alive and dead, in my yard. I have had opposums and raccoons on my front porch and in my back yard. Yet I have no chickens, so nix to that argument.
As time passes, our freedoms are being eroded and twisted. Ironically, I can have an arsenal of weapons in my home. Legally. But not a few chickens?
So what’s up with Commissioner Long laughing and calling a senior experienced chicken farmer a liar telling “chicken tales” at the 5/15 commission meeting? She quoted facts from resources confirming backyard pampered hens live 10 + years….increasing the possibility of loose, abandoned elder hens on the streets. Get ready for hens downtown on congested 50×100′ or smaller lots…unless you come to the June 8th meeting and get verbal.
Sorry for the error, it was vice mayor Zudrow, not Commissioner Long.
Get serious, NO Chickens.
Chickens? We go on vacation and come back to a chicken discussion? Beyond unbelievable. Please no chickens. They belong in the country or at least in an area larger than an acre.
http://www.brooklynfeed.com/2009/06/why-you-should-not-keep-backyard-chickens/
This is a great website to give the “real story” on chickens and the problems surrounding having domestic chickens in a city environment.
Thank you Betty for this article. Very enlightening and should be a must read for the Mayor and Commissioners.
Interesting article and it may have hit home. I recently heard chickens in a neighbor’s yard and didn’t think too much of it. However, I have been battling rats for much of January and February, which have never been an issue before. Seeing it mentioned in this article brought it together for me. Gotta say, leave the chickens on the farm, please!
I do not want chickens roaming around or will they fall under the leash law, similar to other pets? Will peacocks be brought in next?
Yes everyone should be able to own chickens!!!
No one has the right to tell someone else that they shouldn’t own a chicken.
I don’t eat store bought chicken anymore because it’s all poison, so if I choose to own chickens it should be my decision. If I’m keeping my yard clean and it’s on my property then with all due respect …
it’s no one else’s business.
That’s the problem, everyone thinks they can tell everybody else what to do.
Everyone should have chickens and a garden and everyone else should mind their own business if it’s not there lifestyle!!!
It is minding our business – majority do not want chickens next door to them. So should everyone downtown be allowed to have cows and goats for milk and meat? Maybe add an Ostrich or two for their eggs? If you want chickens then please consider living on a farm.
I am a cancer survivor and if I choose to have chickens to get my eggs then it should be my choice. If I choose to have a garden it’s also my choice because everything in the store are GMO’s and poison. But if you want to continue to feed you and your family poison, be my guest, but you DO NOT have the right to tell other people how they should live.
About the cows and goats, lady your just ignorant. Maybe one day you should get a life threatening disease and then you tell me how you want to eat.
No better yet I’d like to see someone tell you how to eat. Your part of the problem!
We have been allowed to have 4 chickens forever, now you want to stop it…really!!
If people are keeping there chicken coups clean, there should be no problems.
Sorry you experienced health problems. But chickens are not allowed now. That is why the discussion. And I’m not telling anyone how to eat. I’m saying I don’t won’t to live next door to chickens. And you can purchase fresh eggs in his area. Just google it. I would never wish anyone a life threatening disease. Wishing you a healthy and happy life.
Odd logic that no one should be able to tell neighbors that they do not want to live next door to a barnyard but it has been OK for a tiny sliver of status quo fanatics to tell everyone else how big they can build a home.
Interesting that the “private property rights” advocates have been screaming that they have a “right” to do whatever they want to do (build it however big) when it comes to their property, and they don’t believe that a “sliver” of neighbors should have a say. But, These are the same folks who are suddenly squawking a new tune when somebody wants to exercise THEIR private property rights to have chickens for food/pets or whatever, and now, the “property rights” fanatics are opposed. Tiny sliver or not, you do not have infinite “property rights” and neither does your neighbor. That is the touchstone of “zoning” and “land use” codes.
I just bought the house next door to you and want chickens. Now what do you say?
I love chickens, ducks, and peafowl with their nostalgic cries. Their poop makes excellent fertilizer for the Florida native salvias, hamila, Spanish needle, and passion vine that bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds love to feast on! What happened to humanity? The people in this state with the access to the loveliness of year round nature have become petty, bitter, and narrow minded. As for the sichophant with the half baked apology to the cancer survivor, save it. You have no idea what it is like to be a survivor, and the crap you think is organic in the store? well deary, that is fake news!
I raised 6 doz hens in the country. Chickens are not pest control agents, as theIr droppings are considered “hot” and burn grass and plants. When your grass is gone, they will still scratch in the dirt full of their manure, salmonella and coccidia, dust themselves with it and add grain to the mess that becomes a morass of infected muck in the rainy season to ooze down to the neighbors’ yards or City drains. Flies at your picnic and backyards you can’t walk in, clucking and cackling to set your dogs a-barking. Allow on 1+ acre lots only. Would create an unhealthy environment for kids and pets downtown. IDEA: Give hen lovers land to rent at Folly Farm instead. Be the first quaint city with a community hen farm….HGTV would love it…Folly Farm Flock Families.
That is an excellent idea! Way to go thinking outside the box!!
… very good idea..!
No to the chickens, we just live to close together with the neighbors. No matter how clean you keep the cage they still smell.
Well I am a neighbor of an individual that has chickens and they have been loose several times digging up my yard and flower beds. The noise isn’t a concern but constantly chasing them out of the yard. Additionally other animals are now coming into my yard and making a mess. More of inconvenience than anything this is not a farm its a residential area!!!
I so wanted to be able to support this, as it appears to work for many other cities. However, after hearing the debate at the meeting, I too am now siding against the idea. A few speakers spoke about the difficulties they are having with current chicken owners. (Cleanliness, attracting pests etc). The number of raccoon, possum, rats, and coyote will definitely continue to challenge anyone who decides to introduce chickens to their property. Then their is the issue of properly addressing the hens after they stop laying eggs. They produce for 3 years but can live to 10. When we can confidently trust all our neighbors to keep their yards and porches free of trailers, sofas, broken down trucks and other code violations, only then would I trust them with chickens.
I think its a great idea to check with other small cities, like Dunedin and see how things have gone there since they allowed chickens–do some research and then make a decision
… very smart advice…!
There is a KFC on Gulf-to-Bay in Clearwater and another on Curlew Road in Oldsmar. That is as close to Downtown Safety Harbor as i want chickens.
I don’t necessarily think noise of clucking is the issue. Issues are odor, owners becoming lazy on daily maintenance of poop drippings which attract mice and rats. Raccoons and coyotes are attracted to eating chickens and yes there are coyotes traveling in the downtown alleys of Safety Harbor. What happens to the small chicks that are cute when young but not so cute after? Think of all the little fuzzy bunnies bought at Easter time and end up in the woods or at the shelter when people grow old of caring for them. Not to mention the attraction of roaches. The downtown lots are just not the place to be having chickens, they need to raised somewhere else, like on a farm.
And most importantly what happened to focusing on important issues in Safety Harbor? A handful of residents wanting chickens doesn’t constitute as something of a priority.
No chickens near me please. Stink, varmints, noise
Depends on the breed – as some breeds are quieter than others. But overall, hens don’t make the kind of noise, even at their most vocal, that is annoying to neighbors. Noise that carries over distance, like dogs barking and roosters crowing, is of the sort of noise that gets on people’s nerves.
Noisy chickens: Light Brahmas, Black Australorps, EE bantam, Cochin/Silver Laced Wyandotte silkies, Sebright, Ameracaunas and EE cchicken breeds can be a little noisy.
Docile quiet chickens: The Orpingtons, Speckled Sussex, Brahmas and Wyandottes. Buff Orpington chickens rate high on many of the factors people are looking for in backyard suburban poultry. They are quiet, docile, friendly and fluffy birds.
Of course it could get complicated specifying breeds allowed and knowing which kind people have. That said, any chicken sound is less volume and annoying than a barking dog.
How does stuff like this get on the agenda? Doesn’t the commission have more important things to work on?
This item was queued up by the former city commission. I suspect it was a parting gift by the old mayor knowing he was on his way out. I’ve never seen the city act on anything with such speed!
I believe the issue was resolved in 2011 but one man requested hens again, resulting in wasted time for all once again.
no chickens in old town…maybe in the other parts
by old town I mean east of the RR Tracks, south of MLB BLVD, north of 7th street south and to the bay on the east.
Agree with you Michael. I love animals but chickens belong on a farm not downtown.
Totally agree, whats next boa’s?